Monday, August 22, 2011

ESL Teaching Tip: Syllable Division in Multi-Syllable Words

In a previous blog post, I shared the five phonetic skills--strategies for determining if a vowel is long or short in a single-syllable word. What about multi-syllabic words? Where do you split the syllable in multi-syllabic words? Here are two simple decoding skills that you can use to teach students where to break syllables. Then apply the five phonetic skills to determine if the vowel is long or short in each syllable. Using the two decoding skills and five phonetic skills in combination can help students with proper pronunciation of multi-syllabic words.

Decoding Skill 1: Look for how many consonants immediately follow a vowel. If there is one consonant following the vowel, that consonant will go on to the next syllable. (Note that blends, digraphs, etc. will stay together and move together within syllables.)

mo-tel pro-duce

Decoding Skill 2: If there are two consonants immediately following the vowel, divide between the two consonants. The first consonant will stay in the first syllable, and the second consonant will move on to the next syllable.

4) If an E is at the end of the word and it is preceded by another vowel, the E at the end of the word is silent and the first vowel is long. Silent E makes the first vowel long. (Examples: name, Pete, fine, home, cute or dune)

5) If two vowels are adjacent (next to each other), the second vowel is silent, making the first vowel long. (Examples: main, dream, lied, road, fruit)

Click here to read about syllable stress and the schwa.Click here to read about adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est.Click here to read about teaching common suffixes. Click here to read about teaching common prefixes. Click here to read about spelling words that end in S, F, and Z.

About Me

This blog shares information about the lessons I've learned (and continue to learn) from my experiences traveling the world while creating curriculum, conducting teacher training, and teaching literacy and English to Speakers of Other Languages. Currently, I am the Curriculum Director and ESL Director at Reading Horizons in Salt Lake City, Utah (www.readinghorizons.com).